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Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1982-05-20

Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1982-05-20, page 01

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OfflOJE^
21
CHRONICLE
l}l\// Serving Columbus and Central Ohio Jewish Communily tor Over 60 Years VwA'R
L!BRAKY, OHIO HiS
1 0 02 -V ELM A AVE-.
COLd. 0. 43<il I
EXCH
VOL.60 NO.20
MAY 20,1982-IYAR27
Devoted to American
and Jewish ideals.
Anti-Semitism Remains Major Problem
For The American Jewish Community
J wwwi^lli.*
Walk-A-Thon Chairperson Miss Debby Applebaum,
right, and student Karen Mandel plan this year's Walk-
A-Thon course through the Therapeutic Landscaped
Gardens at Heritage Village.
Heritage House Residents
Hold Own Walk-A-Thon
In honor of Israel's 34th
Year of Independence and In
conjunction with the Columbus Jewish Center's "Israel
34" Celebration, Heritage
House residents participated
in their own Walk-A-Thon
throughout the Therapeutic
Landscaped Gardens.
Miss Debby | Applebaum
was selected to serve as this
year's Walk-A-Thon Chairperson. An enthusiastic and
daily walker throughout the
grounds, Miss Applebaum
proudly sports her pedometer as she measures over
four miles walking distance
each day. She was assisted
by Ms. Karen Mandel, an
O.S.U. student in Recreational Therapy who is currently enjoying a field placement at Heritage House.
Two courses were mapped
out by Miss Applebaum and
Ms. Mandel, which directed
participants past the Land-
scaping's fountains, gazebos
and flowering gardens.
Waik-A-Thon participants
included Miss Debby Applebaum, Miss Esther Schlansky, Mrs. Florence Caul,
Mrs. Bertha Levion, Mrs.
Pearle Sillman, Mr. Harry
Snyder and Mrs. Pearl
Margolis. Mrs. Hannah
Cohen, Mr. Sol Barnett and
Miss Esther Feldman also
participated at the "Israel
34" Celebration at the
Jewish Center.
NEW YORK (JTA)~
Anti-Semitism continues to
be a major problem for the
American Jewish community, according to a group of
experts. While overt anti-
Semitism has been placed
beyond the pale of decent
conduct, there is no basis for
complacency, they noted. In
addition, a.major factor in
igniting the flame of anti-
Semitism is the continual efforts in the United Nations to
"delegitimize Israel."
These were some of the
observations by members of
the American Jewish Committee's national staff at a
panel discussion of "Anti-
Semitism and Other Threats
to Jewish Interests" at the
opening plenary session of
Documentary Says Germans
Aware During World War II
BONN (JTA)-A documentary titled Concentration Camp Next Door, broadcast on television and radio
in various parts of West Germany, appears to refute the
long-standing contention
that ordinary Germans were
unaware of what was happening to Jews during World
War II.
The film, produced by Barbara Schoenfeldt, deals with
a concentration camp called
Eidelstedt in the northwest
outskirts of Hamburg where
the inmates were women
employed as slave laborers.
Shortly before the end of the
war, 500 of them were tortured and murdered by the
SS. The film-maker con-i
ducted interviews with local
residents who lived there
during the war.
They said they often saw
the women herded through
the streets on their way to
work, heavily guarded by SS
men who beat them sadistically. A former locomotive
engineer, whose train left
from the ntarby railroad
station, said he had witnessed this spectacle daily.
But nobody reacted at the
time, either out.of fear or because they refused to be involved in "something they
considered not their business, the documentary said.
the AJCommittee's 76th
annual meeting lasr week.
Hyman Bookbinder,
reflecting the concerns of {lis
position as AJC's representative in Washington,
asserted that "although the
fight against crude, vulgar,
explicit anti-Semitism in
America has been essentially won, the fight against
the more subtle, insidious
allegations against American Jews and their goals has
only begun." He cautioned
that "when Jewish advocacy
of a public policy cannot be
refuted by facts or logic, as
in the AWACS debate last
year, Jewish motives will be
impugned and the ugly
charge of dual loyalty will be
raised."
Nevertheless, he declared,
"we must reject the advice
of those who ask us to desist
from public debate or advocacy on controversial subjects lest that lead to anti-
Semitism. To do so is to lose
the battle against anti-Semitism even before we begin.
.Rather,.with.'confidence, we
must show how the JeWish
interest and the American*
interest are not in conflict."
Concerned Over
Actions In The UN
Theodore Ellehoff, chairman of the AJC's national
executive council, who
chaired the session, pointed
out that "despite the fears of
some Jews that there would'
be anti-Semitic repercussions following the AWACS
debate, a Gallup pole commissioned by the A JC and
conducted this past March
indicated that there has been
no significant change in ,
American attitudes toward
Jews or Israel."
From his personal point of
view, Ellenoff said he was
particularly concerned with
"the effort to delegitimize
the State of Israel in the halls
of the United Nations and to
characterize her as intransigent in pursuing peace. Such
delegitimization and false
characterization tend to
resonate throughout the
American public, to under-
. cut American Jewish positions of support and to inject
in a less than subtle way
anti-Semitic themes into discussions of American foreign policy," he said.
* Irving Levine, director of
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 20)
Israel To Halt Weapons Deals
With Government Of Argentina
JERUSALEM (JTA)-
Israel will make no further
arms deals with Argentina
but would deliver any arms
already contracted for, according to Foreign Minister
Hitzhak Shamir.
The British government
has asked for clarification of
the arms relationship between Israel and Argentina
after attention was drawn
recently to the fact that an
Argentine fighter plane
downed by Britain off the
coast of the Falkland Islands
was identified as an Israeli-
made Dagger, a forerunner
of Israel's Kfir fighter plane.
Shamir said that Israel
wanted to stay out of the
Falklands dispute and had
concluded no arms deal
since the crisis erupted. According to officials here,
Israel is a minor supplier of
arms to Argentina, the
source of less than 10 percent
of Argentina's arms imports.
CRC Reaffirms Opposition
To Prayer In Public Schools
The Community Relations
Committee of the Columbus
Jewish Federation recently
met to renew its opposition
to President Reagan's proposal calling for a constitutional amendment allowing
voluntary prayer in public
schools. Ira O. Kane, Chairman of the C.R.C., said that
the CRC's opposition is
based strongly upon the constitutional provision of the
A MAN AND HIS MISSION
Rabbi David Stavsky Celebrates 25 Years
By Judith Franklin
Chronicle Staff Writer
Rabbi David Stavsky is
celebrating his 25th anniversary as spiritual leader of
the Beth Jacob Congregation
and as a positive force for
Rabbi David Stavsky
change in the Columbus
Jewish Community. For all
of the last 25 years, Rabbi
Stavsky has been a man with
a mission—a mission dedicated to demonstrating that,
in his words, "Orthodox
Judaism can be a contemporary religious faith in a
modern society, a dignified
mode of life."
Rabbi Stavsky came to
Columbus and Beth Jacob in
August, 1957. He was, he
says, an idealistic young
rabbi who had just finished
serving as an Army Chaplain at the end of the Korean
conflict. He feels he was
selected from among the 11
candidates who applied for
the position at Beth Jacob
because he could preach in
Yiddish, a prerequisite the
Congregation considered
essential. He soon discovered, however, that the
way to sustain the Congrega-^
tion lay, not in preaching'
Yiddish to the few older
members who understood it,
hut in reaching out in
English to the young people
as yet uncommitted to
Orthodoxy.
with Torah, internalize its
teachings and incorporate
them into their lives. In
"The kids knew they could wear mini-skirts and still
be accepted in the religious milieu of the Orthodox
synagogue."
At his first Sabbath service at Beth Jacob, Rabbi
Stavsky recalls, only 36 congregants were present and
only two of those were under
40. Beth Jacob was not alone;
in this decline in attendance,
he explains. AH oyer the
country, people felt that
Orthodox Judaism was on its
last legs. Orthodoxy simply
was not the "in" thing.
Rabbi Stavsky realized
that the survival of the
Jewish people, as well as
Orthodox Judaism, was
dependent upon the new
generation, He felt he had to
help the youngor members
of the Congregation identify
other words, he had to help
them build a faith to live by.
And that is exactly what he
did.
Today, 175 people regularly attend Sabbath services,
and Beth Jacob has an active
40 member Youth Group.
This growth did not occur
overnight, however. The
turning point. Rabbi Stavsky
feels, came in the 1960's
when so many young people
were involved in a search for
meaning in life. It was the
time of Haight-Ashbury,
flower children, Viet Nam.
Recognizing that there must
be a counter culture, a
counter balance, "after all
everyone was not smoking
pot or taking drugs," he
notes, the Rabbi made a
special, concerted effort to
reach the young people. To
do this, he organized the
Central East Region of
NCSY (National Conference
of Synagogue Youth) which
drew 110 children to its 1969
convention. A year later, in
197Q, 500 attended and the tri-
state region boasted a mem-
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 30)
separation of church and
state and that prayer has a
proper place, but not in our
public schools.
The C.R.C. official statement is as follows: "The
Community Relations Committee of the Columbus
Jewish Federation opposes
the Reagan Administration's
proposal calling for a constitutional amendment allowing for voluntary school
prayer. The Joint Program
Plan of the National Jewish
Community Relations Advisory Council, of which the
CRC is a constituent member, views mandatory silent
prayer or meditation, including voluntary prayer, as
'unconstitutional as articulated prayer.'
"While the Community
Relations Committee believes in prayer and religious observance for all
faiths, we do not believe that
such activity has a place in
the public schools. We con-.
.(CONTINUED ON PAGE 17)
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